Improvement in pocket-books



UNITED TATEs TENT OFFICE.

IM PRGVEMENT IN PCKET-BKS.

pec'ilcation forming part of Letters Patent No. 146,973, dated February 3,1874 application filed November 1, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN GEORGE AL- BERT, of Boston, Suffolk county, State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Pocket-Book, of which the following is a specitication:

The nature of my invention is that of so constructing a wallet or pocket-book, or billboolr, as that one of the divisions, cells, or pockets is concealed by a flap, so to evade observation unless very particular scrutiny is used, and the object is to attain greater security from theft of bills, bonds, or papers, 85e., which may be secreted in the sa-id division or cell.

Figure 1 is a view in perspective of my invention, open, but with the secret cell closed. Fig. 2 is a view in vertical cross-section of the same, in which both the entire pocket and its secret cell are open.

In the drawings, A, Figs. l and 2, is the p tlap, which, when the wallet is closed, overlaps the side B, Figs. l and 2. G C, &c., are the several divisions or pockets commonly constructed in all pocket-books. At the front, in Fig. 1, are shown two separate cells, whose walls (constructed of morocco leather, pasteboard, or silk, as common with pocket-books) are defined by the two waved lines seen on the front side B. These are of use for the keeping of railroad and other tickets, and are not a novelty. D, Figs. l and 2, is a flap of the secret pocket or cell, which is the subject of my invention. In Fig. 2, the flap D of this secret pocket is seen to be drawn up, thus permitting the removal of any contents of the secret pocket, and it is seen that the divisionwall E is separate and distinct from the lefthand wall of the cxtreme left-hand pocket O. In Fig. l, the iiap Dis seen to be tucked or folded in close against the partition or division wall E, Fig. 2, and, being made of the same material as the outer part of the whole pocketbook, and going down to the bottom of thc inner railroad-ticket pocket, appears, unless close scrutiny is practiced, to be a simple Wall dividing the railroad-ticket pocket from the first pocket C. Thus, the ap D being downV or folded in, if one of my pocket-books, thus constructed, is incautiously left subject to the access of thieves, the contents of the secret pocket elude observation.

It is a habit of pickpockets, well known' to the police and to many others, after theyhave feloniously abstracted a pocket-book, to take out the contents, say of bank-notes, which are hardly ever susceptible of identification by the lawful owner, and then to throw or hide away the pocket-book, the possession of which by the thief would, after his apprehension, lead, through its ready identification by the owner, to the thiefs conviction. With my invention, the user can deposit his larger bills, or more valuable papers, in the secret pocket, and thus have, perhaps, ten times the betterchance of recovering his property.

I do not confine myself to the use of my sc cret pocket with pocket-books or wallets alone. I use them also with bill-books and any other of the combinations of leather, Sac., formed into one or more pockets and two or more division-walls, and used for holding bank-notes, papers of value, Smc.; and I do not confine myself to one iiap and secret pocket. The essential elements of my invention consist in the combination of a i'lap, covering one or, more cells or pockets, with a pocket adjoining'it, into which the iiap may be thrust, so that thc inner pocket or pockets is or are concealed.

I claim- In pocket-books, the combination of the subsidiary flap D and the divisionwall E with one or more pockets and their division-walls, substantially as shown and described.

JOHN GEORGE ALBERT.

Vitncsses LEMUEL l?. JENKs, GUsTAV KEAFFTs. 

